Delaware
Markell Continues the Social Progressive Dance
He is a curious mix, our Governor. Later on today I shall have my tome-like response to Governor Markell’s thesis on Third Way Politics in the Atlantic last week. The Governor’s third way politics is unique. He champions progressive policies on the social level (if you exclude education and marijuana from that definition) to hide the fact that he is no progressive economically or educationally. Anti-Discrimination law, Civil Unions, Marriage Equality, and now the repeal of the Death Penalty.
Just Fix Them
Seriously, stop the high school hallway belligerence and just fix Wilmington’s cameras.
Today, Mayor Dennis Williams and Councilman Mike Brown decided to have an argument via WDEL about the amount of money spent on the city’s cameras currently monitored (in theory) by Downtown Visions. The Mayor says that Councilman’s Brown’s figure on the amount of money spent on the cameras is wrong and Brown provides some detail showing that the number he gave was rounded, but not far off from right. Both of them highlight a few of the City’s key problems in dealing with its safety issues:
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Week of May 5-7, 2015
“The budget is broken,” said Delaware Sen. Harris McDowell, a Wilmington Democrat who co-chairs the General Assembly’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee. “The options to fix it are to recognize that we have gotten to the end of the line of tricks.”
That’s the truth. Some of the tricks upon which we relied to balance the state budget, ‘abandoned property’, gambling revenue, even our incorporation fees, have peaked, and will soon be in decline, if they’re not in free-fall already.
Of course, if you read the linked article by Jonathan Starkey, you have to wonder if the proposed solutions can or will in any way address the broken budget. I think there’s no chance in hell that they will. First off, whose bright idea was it to create a bipartisan committee with at least as many R’s as D’s, with some of those D’s being Markell appointees? Uh, they’re the same as R’s. Oh, it was Markell’s idea, executed in an Executive Order he issued back in January. I guess he wants to assure that his legacy of kowtowing to his wealthy Greenville buds is locked in for decades.
Here are some of the ”solutions’ this bipartisan committee is considering, according to Starkey’s article…..
Vote Tracker Update — How are they voting?
Bryan Townsend is the busiest legislator in Dover. The man’s name is so omnipresent, as a lead or additional sponsor, on legislation of significance that I have to imagine either that he is running for higher office, or that he is just the best damn legislator period. The cynic and politician in me wants the former. The good government romantic in me wants the latter. Kim Williams is a close runner up too.
So here is the updated Vote Tracker as of today, May 4, 2015. My focus on these vote trackers is to follow legislation of progressive significance, whether they be pro-progressive or anti-progressive. For example, we are following the Right to Work bill and the Estate Tax Repeal bill, not because we want them to pass, rather we want them to fail, and we are going to take note of any Democrat who votes for them so that we can work to replace them in the next election.
I have reorganized the Vote Tracker this month. It’s just one document now, and legislation with actual votes recorded is list at the top, followed by legislation that has been released by their relevant committees and are due for votes in one chamber of the General Assembly or the other. For the specific details of legislation that is being considered in committee, and also the whens, wheres, whys and wherefores, I encourage you to follow El Somnambulo’s Pre-Game Post-Game series.
Hillary Clinton Watch Over… Beau Biden Watch Begins
Well, we finally know that Hillary Clinton is running for President. Now we need to find out if Beau Biden is running for Governor. It is the central question in Delaware politics, and really, no one knows the exact answer to it, just like no one really knows what medical condition the former Attorney General suffered back in August 2013. But we finally got some Beau Biden news on Friday that may shed some light on some answers.
Sign This Petition to Support Implementing Real Violence Reduction Strategies in Wilmington
This petition at the site change.org is addressed to the Governor, AG Matt Denn, Mayor Dennis Williams and Chief Bobby Cummings to ask them to implement the Wilmington Public Safety Strategies Commission report and 9 other actions to help to address and reduce the violence in Wilmington. Please take a few minutes to read this over and sign it, if you can. Also forward this on to your friends and share via your FB pages or Twitter to help spread the word. Thanks!
Monday Daily Delawhere [5.4.15]
Rowhouses in spring on 13th and Orange Streets in Wilmington. Photo by xzmattzx.
Sunday Daily Delawhere [5.3.15]
Classic high end cars from the Point to Point races at Winterthur. Photo by xzmattzx.
Saturday Daily Delawhere [5.2.15]
Magnolia Circle and Memorial Hall on the University of Delaware campus. Photo by xzmattzx.
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